Tuesday, May 14, 2013

It's a good news/bad news thing

You can follow me on Twitter - @cyclist1959 (and I may actually be tweeting more, now that I'm on break from work)

The good news was that the test they did to check and see if my heart was okay to handle the attempt to shock it into a normal rhythm showed it was strong enough to proceed.  The bad news was that the attempt failed.

The good news was that the propofol made sure I was out like a light and don't remember a thing.  The bad news is that I hate having periods of time where I don't remember something.  The toughest part of waking up from an eight week coma was not remembering anything.  I went into the ER one morning and woke up two months later in the Intensive Care Unit, with a tube in my throat.

The good news is I'm off of work for two months.  The bad news is today I still find myself a little too tired to do a lot.  Maybe I'll feel better tomorrow.  Also, I find myself missing the helping clients part of my work. 

The good news is that I now have four 5 star reviews on Yelp.  The bad news is that all four have been filtered because they were first reviews and they were 5 stars.  All are from real clients who were happy with the work.  Yelp's filter sucks.

Some are being critical of the decision of Angelina Jolie to go public with news that she chose to have a double mastectomy due to her having a genetic mutation that put her at a much greater risk of breast cancer.  I don't see she did anything wrong, and if just one woman saves her own life because she checks to see if she also has that same genetic mutation, then Jolie's actions would be heroic.  Sometimes a celebrity's choice to publicize their own issue will bring it to the attention of others with the same affliction.

So the Associated Press broke a story that involved classified information.  And in response, as part of their investigation, the Justice Department obtained the AP's phone records for a two month period trying to solve the question of who leaked the classified data.  This is just wrong.  Plain wrong.  The legitimate press (definition of which is changing rapidly in the era of every blogger considering themself a "journalist) is going to have to have the right to protect their sources.  Otherwise people won't be willing to give out valuable information when they know that their identity can't be protected.  Shield laws exist for a reason.

This Date in History:

On this date in 1607, Jamestown, VA is settled as an English colony.
On this date in 1610, Henry IV of France is assassinated, bringing Louis XIII to the throne.
On this date in 1787, the Constitutional Convention convenes.
On this date in 1796, Edward Jenner administers the first smallpox vaccination.
On this date in 1925, Virginia Woolf's novel "Mrs. Dalloway" is published.
On this date in 1939, Lina Medina becomes the youngest confirmed mother, at the age of five.
On this date in 1948, Israel is declared to be an independent state.
On this date in 1961, the Freedom Riders bus is fire-bombed in Alabama.
On this date in 1963, Kuwait joins the UN.
On this date in 1973, Skylab is launched.

Famous Folk Born on this date:

Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor
Thomas Gainsborough
Rudolf Lipschitz
Johnny Moss
Oona O'Neill
Gump Worsley
Bobby Darin
George Lucas
Robert Zemeckis
David Byrne
"Dr. Death" Steve Williams (RIP)
Tim Roth
Fab Morvan (his mother lip-synched her moans of pain during birth)
Cate Blanchett
Sofia Coppola
Roy Halladay
Amber Tamblyn
Mark Zuckerberg
Zack Ryder (woo, woo, woo)

Movie Quotes of the day come from 2005's "Hitch":

Hitch: Life is not the amount of breaths you take, it's the moments that take your breath away.

#2

Sara: What should we toast to?
Hitch: Never lie, steal, cheat, or drink. But if you must lie, lie in the arms of the one you love. If you must steal, steal away from bad company. If you must cheat, cheat death. And if you must drink, drink in the moments that take your breath away.

#3

Hitch: Like I always tell my clients - begin each day as if it were on purpose.